2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

Vascodakarma

Down to earth with a big bump yesterday - on the way home, I noticed my throat was getting sore and 24 hours later, I’m full of cold, nasty cough and banging head. The price of visiting family 😞 
I’ll do a test tomorrow but remain indoors for now. Thankfully everyone is either triple jabbed or have recently recovered from asymptomatic Covid so 🤞 

I had a lovely trip once I’d got under way. The last two trips I’ve been on I’ve not been up to sleep at all the night before due to anxiety and that makes my wrists and feet flare up. Despite that, and the terrible weather, I had a nice time and Firstborn was well and truly surprised 😃

I need to be well and truly frugal for the rest of the month and get on making money if I want to enjoy more of this spontaneous travelling 😃

short_bird

121-123: 150 emails deleted or unsubscribed from
124-141: items to bin or recycling, items also cooked or frozen as on use by date.
142-143: paid a bill and paid national insurance...

Also, lost 0.5lb and am up to 7 spend free days.

shangaijimmy

Nothing major done today, work issues completely derailed the day.

Day 11
* Mrs SJ's favourite Baileys glass that was a Mothers Day present - I smashed it with my clumsiness 
* The remains of a magnet set of the kids (not safe with a puppy in the house)

I also dropped off the charity bag (2/3's full but I didn't want it loitering, so I've avoided procrastination on this front).

balabooberlies

weenancyinAmerica said:

I wouldn't mind so much if they were children; One of my roommates is 63 - and was never allowed to do housework by her mother. Didn't even know to use hot water to do dishes. She is on the Autism spectrum, add, and a hoarder. One is 62. He was an alcoholic and drug addict before he moved in here - because he was homeless on the streets. He has Parkinson's now. Tries to help but has problems with coordination. The next is 45 and employed but he works from about 4:00 pm  to 1:30 am, so sleeps until 2:00 pm most days. He has a male co-worker who stays here a lot - both tested positive for Covid in the past week. The last one's daughter was in Foster Care in another state. Can't tell time, write coherently, and only reads a limited amount. She ran away when she was 19 and came here 2 years ago - recently diagnosed as Autistic (should have been years ago), has ADHD and is also a Hoarder. Has back issues as well and can't seem to do anything but work on her phone ad tablet. I'm 74, diabetic, with Fibromyalgia, and get so tired in the afternoons. About to scream most days. I am working on my stuff - trying the Swedish Death Cleaning Approach. I actually got one to start the getting rid of six items a day! Definitely need help here. Really enjoy reading this Forum - helps to keep me sane. I have been to England about 20 times for 2 to 6 weeks at a time, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales at least 17 times each. I'll imagine myself on the train - easy to do - looking at the scenery. 

Huge hugs Wee Nancy

so much to deal with.

This is one of the friendliest, warmest, supportive places I have ever encountered in my life.  

Welcome

bala

x

thriftwizard

Well - I took 4 bags & a box down to the Scrapstore today in the end; the proposed trip last week got derailed one way & another but that did give me a chance to find more surplus fabric, yarn & books to donate. I've also found somewhere I can donate two big boxes of genuinely interesting older books sitting out in the garage; the local museum doesn't feel the need for books to be "current" like most of our charity shops do! I've also tackled a couple of mending/alteration projects; every one completed lessens the mess in the "sewing room" which makes sorting out & getting stuff done easier. I'm hoping to take the books tomorrow, but may again get de-railed, if DS3's coach gets cancelled & I have to run him to the airport, 100 miles away! (The earlier one was 6 hours earlier; this one should get him there with 4 hours to spare, but it's taking 3 hours to "go through" and the next coach, an hour later, wouldn't give him any leeway for traffic jams etc.)

There are two small areas that badly need de-cluttering; the "desk" under the stairs where the printer & stationery live - and everything else that people can't be bothered to put away properly! - and the big shelves in the bathroom. There are rather a lot of half-empty, dusty bottles & containers, which means there's nowhere for clean, folded towels and flannels. Time for a good chuck-out & deep clean! My aim is to have sorted both of those out by the end of the weekend, despite the fact that the rest of the week is pretty busy.

vulpix

Thank you for get well wishes. As the day has gone on I feel much better. 

 Newlywed, keep the skirt. Find a new top ,you will be the Belle of the ball.

 Good stuff for booking a mammogram Mrs SD. I didn't feel ill when I was diagnosed and would never have known other wise.

 sumb7170 I read Tess of the Durbervilles when I  was a teenager, I  always thought I  would read it again .Been 40 odd years...soon!

sabsob. keep on with the listing. I sold so much stuff last year by listing a few every week.

weenancyinamerica. your room mates have a massive amount on their plates. In your shoes I would keep my space pretty neat n tidy and encourage them by lots of praise for any efforts on their part. Sure that is what you are doing anyway but just wanted to show my support.x

 All I have done today is sew the patchwork quilt. 2 more sections to make then just sew them all together, sew a border, and back it. I think I may have cut it too fine to be ready for DIL's birthday. 768 pieces sewn so  far. My wrist hurts.

 Pleasingly I have used up 3 pritt sticks and 3 reels of cotton from my stash. I have also used up hand cream and perfume. Plenty more cottons ,hand cream and perfume to use up though. Strange thing is I don't EVER remember buying reels of cotton and I have a box full!

 Vx

TC77

@weenancyinAmerica .. welcome and please be kind to yourself. 
RL taken over, visit to ik*a for Dd1 and dd2 for carrying,  nothing for me but took hours, work and few frogs for my dad but nothing left the house and chaos multiplying. Accept some days/weeks will be like that but not going to beat myself up. Agro with BG who came to do repair and decided they wouldn't cover me - they  would have to stand on ladder to.mend the boiler should it break. They agreed they could do.repair needed but wouldn't. Luckily had screenshot my policy this morning so letter of complaint sent. They offered to refund payments but i just want repair done. Recollect tales of woe.with BG here last year.we shall see.  

Liverpool_Anne

@weenancyinAmerica from what you have said I think you must be living in something like supported living accommodation? Your flat mates certainly do have a lot to cope with but so do you. Is there anyone who can help with some mediation in this set up. I think if you can keep your personal space calm and come to some agreement about the shared space that would be a start. As far as things like washing up I think I would have my own dishes etc, keep them in your room and when the others run out they will have to deal with them. Do you have a dishwasher? Maybe the mediator can organise some sort of rota to load and unload it. Hoarders can be a major problem especially if it makes moving around the space difficult and can be a cause of accidents. It seems to me some of your flat mates have maybe not been prepared for independent living and need some support to be able to cope but it is not really fair to expect you to do this. I think you are going to have to ask someone to help them learn these skills. Other than that if it is really upsetting you is there any way you could move to somewhere else? 
@newlywed I think a white or cream top would be lovely with the skirt, some of the models are wearing them, but then I am not really a matching person and tend to wear white tops with lots of colours, sometimes I wish I was more of a matching person but in all honesty I am more of a 'it's clean and ironed ' person
@sabsob, welcome and good luck with your listing, let us know how you are doing, it will give me even more encouragement to get on with some
@sumb7170, very interested to hear about the bleaching / dyeing, I should think about that, I have a few things that might benefit from that. What did you use? 
@OWD_nana, thank you I think I am nearly mended . As for the shoes you have decluttered some money and done a job earmarked for February so you are ahead of the game
@Vascodakarma, hope your test is -ve but even so take care of yourself, you need to be fighting fit for all your spontaneous travel
@TC77, you have my sympathy re BG and I hope you can find a local plumber / heating system person to do your work. 
Well today I think I have got to grips with my finances. It seems to have taken a couple of months to sort out my pensions but I think it's right now. I will have to phone the tax office to make sure they have calculated it right, they sent me a letter just before Christmas but I am not convinced they have calculated it correctly but I needed to check my statements before I speak to them. I don't want a huge tax bill, even though it galls me that I have to pay it. I also need to go to the bank to sort out a few things, hopefully I will get there tomorrow
Take care everyone

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 5 tasks.
2. Deal with Old Frogs & potential frogs ASAP but at least one on FROG Fridays.
3. Reduce/Restrict time watching TV and playing AB2 during daylight hours 😉
4. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed

I didn’t quite manage to get to 11/11 on Tuesday but did manage to get to 7/11 tasks completed including another medical frog. No shopping trip as it started raining. Dinner was pasta with Bolognese sauce (snack portion of sauce into freezer ☹️) Wudupa. As I was falling asleep on the sofa I went to bed before 1:00 a.m. - very unusual for me 😉 but have been waking up every 2 hours or so for the bathroom. 

Wednesday 6:10 a.m. - it is dark, clear & cold & even with light pollution (I have a street lamp in my front garden ☹️) I can still see stars. Listening to very tuneful birdsong 🙂 I have bitten the bullet & weighed myself & it is worse than I thought 😥 😱 Starting fresh for Wednesday I have 4 + 5 tasks to complete making a total of 9
Therefore I am on 1/9. 

51 - 52 Kitchen recycling & detritus disposed of appropriately

Welcome aboard The EDT sabsob 👋 Very pleased that you have found us 👏 I have noted your target of 312 (only because as you reach certain milestones on your decluttering journey I give out awards - just to keep the motivation high 😉) So again welcome don’t forget to pop into the buffet car or The TLC Carriage for a natter 🙂 Btw well done on your sales so far 👏

Excellent progress on your decluttering campaign sumb7170 👏 plus brilliant work on reaching your mending target 👏 Btw you have been way too busy to report your progress 😉 Well done on resisting the temptation to buy the tablecloth 👏 you were meant to have the shed which will save money in the long run once the storage unit has been emptied into it 🥳 As to the weigh in - 2.6kg equates to 0.05kg per week 😯😉 

Your random approach to your decluttering is currently paying dividends so don’t worry about not yet having a system 😉

OWD_nana surely a triple win - you have made a new friend 😉 I will join you in your excitement 😉 it is one thing to fill bags for the CS 👏 but being able to deliver them asap can be a logistical nightmare if you don’t own a car 😔 Excellent decluttering by the way 👏 Get yourself back out of the baggage carriage & pop into the buffet car to show us your new shoes 🙂 - a planned expenditure for a ‘need’ is not against our decluttering ethos 🙄 

Oh dear weenancyinAmerica 😔 what a difficult situation to be in ☹️ Hopefully Liverpool_Anne’s post is relevant to your situation. All I can offer is virtual hugs 🤗 & a safe space to talk. You have probably seen more of the U.K. & Ireland than most of us 🙂 Remembering that The EDT is a magical train is there anywhere off mainland U.K. that you would like us to visit? 🙂

Great work on starting two Frogs Clutterbug07 👏 Don’t remember if I congratulated you on your newly wed status so congratulations 🎉 

A great start ValentinoRossi46 👏 You are now a fully fledged declutterer 🙂

Good work EnergyShifter 👏 I am beaming at your kind praise 😆

Great news shabbychic12 🙂 Having an end goal in sight will be a wonderful motivation to declutter 👏 Please make sure you do wrap up warm whilst working in the garage 🙏 I really don’t want you getting ill 😉

Get well soon wishes coming your way Vascodakarma. Hopefully your immune system has been bolstered with all the good things you have brought into your life (lovely holidays, family visits & feeling happier in yourself) & will quickly kick this heavy cold 🤞into touch very quickly 🤞In the meantime wrap up warm & drink plenty of fluids & everything crossed for a -ve result 🤞 Spontaneous travelling - love it & hope you are very proud of yourself 🙂

Great work short_bird 👏 and well done on your weight loss, a steady start 👏

Great work shangaijimmy especially dropping off the CS bag 👏

What a lovely compliment about this thread, balabooberlies 😊 I imagine we are all beaming 😁 

Excellent decluttering thriftwizard 👏 even getting derailed hasn’t stopped you 🙂 If you do have to take DS3 to the airport would it be possible to drop things off on your way home 🤞 so that your plans aren’t derailed too much 🙏🤞 As to people not helping out, I think stern measures are required 😉 but only you can be the judge of what these measures should be 😉

Pleased to hear you are feeling better vulpix 🙂 I do religiously attend my mammograms  vulpix & usually book my appointment immediately but somehow last years letter got lost in clutter 😔 hence my new found commitment to dealing with frogs 🙂 Excellent decluttering work & fingers crossed that the quilt will be finished on time 🤞

Well done on assisting everyone else TC77 👏 Hopefully this will be reciprocated with helping you to declutter 😉🤞As to BG - what can I say that would be printable emojis will have to do 😡 😖 😠 

Liverpool_Anne, what a wonderfully supportive post 👏 one medal 🏅 on its way 🙂 Excellent work on tackling your finances - Gold Star ⭐️ worthy (it is on its way 🙂) & 🤞that you are on the last leg & that the tax bill will be a small one 🤞 

When I finish my 3rd coffee I will run a bath & pamper myself a bit before tackling the 8 remaining tasks to catch up to my stated objective of 5 tasks a day 😉🤞

MrsSD  🏅🏅🏅 🌟 ⭐️ ⭐️

Decluttering Target: 52/2022

2022 - 1p Savings Challenge: Jan £5.00; Feb

sabsob

Oooh, @Mrs_Salad_Dodger - rewards sound enticing! Right - I'm on it!

Today, I have Hermes pick up a parcel of books I sold via We Buy Books - it's my first foray with the site, but it'll be 34 books gone - not a target, and not a listing, so not award-worthy , but still, stuff gone!

Our son decluttered his bookshelf over Christmas, and there are literally nearly 1000 books that need to find a new home (I know, I know!) - I see a car boot sale in our future, although I might write to schools.